Simon Deng is an activist and leader from Darfur, Sudan. Mr. Deng was enslaved by northern Arabs when he was nine. Today at 44, he is an American citizen, working as a lifeguard on Coney Island and leading the struggle to stop genocide in Darfur. Last May, he was invited to speak before the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva, Switzerland. In March 2006, Mr. Deng launched the Sudan Freedom Walk to call for an end to slavery and genocide in Sudan, trekking 300 miles from United Nations headquarters in New York to the Capital Building in Washington, D.C., culminating in a meeting with President Bush at the White House. Mr. Deng's efforts and his relentless activism brought the Darfur issue into world prominence.

Patricia Jabbeh Wesley’s poetry and activism has focused much attention on the plight of Liberian refugees of war, being herself a survivor of that horrific civil war that ravaged Liberia, West Africa for fifteen years. She immigrated to the United States in the 1990s and settled in Michigan for many years. Patricia is the author of two books of poetry: Becoming Ebony (SIU Press in 2003), which is a Crab Orchard Award Series winner, and Before The Palm Could Bloom: Poems of Africa,(New Issues Press, 1998). She currently teaches English and Creative Writing at Penn State University Altoona, where she lives in the Altoona area with her family.  

Anthony Butts is the author of Male Hysteria (Pitt Poetry Series Autumn 2007), Little Low Heaven (New Issues 2003) winner of the Poetry Society of America’s 2004 William Carlos Williams Award, and Fifth Season (New Issues 1997).  He is Associate Professor of Creative Writing and English at Carnegie Mellon University, and has been a member of the Creative Writing Faculty since 2001.  He has a doctorate in poetry writing, gender theory, and the history of American poetry from the University of Missouri-Columbia (1999).

Heather Robinson is an independent journalist whose coverage of Simon Deng and the humanitarian crisis in Darfur have appeared in The New York Daily News.  Her work has also appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post, and Jewish Telegraphic Agency.  Heather lives in New York City.

Richard St. John studied English at Princeton University, (B.A.) and the University of Virginia (M.A.).  Following 20 years of work in community development, he completed at mid-career Loeb Fellowship at Harvard University, and has  recently been involved in a project called “Conversations for Common Wealth,” which uses poetry and other materials to help small groups of citizens connect across difference and reflect on their contributions to the common good.  His book, The Pure Inconstancy of Grace, was  published in 2005 by Truman State University Press. 

UMOJA African Arts Company was formed in 1989 to promote the indigenous culture of Africa in the United States. In 1998, UMOJA, which means UNITY in the Swahili language of Africa, re-dedicated itself as a non-profit arts organization to better convey its message of the universality of art as a bridge between cultures. UMOJA's mission is to raise awareness, increase appreciation, facilitate integration and encourage the preservation and presentation of the rich art, culture and heritage of Africa.